2 DeMause Manuscript--Jan 2022 Circulating draft

Wolterstorff; Strathy / BETTER PARENTS / 42
hardly worth noting. Yet if Provision is the highest level a child experiences, there is
nothing trivial about this gift. Provision has powerful and positive effect on a person's
view of the world and ability to function in it.
Instability on the Provision Level
Unfortunately, some children grow up in an unstable Provision environment
where they either experience insecurity regarding the necessities of life or lack a secure
connection with a parent. Either condition can cause a child to grow up believing she
cannot depend on the world to provide for her, and that deprivation is a real and
constant threat. Such insecurity will make it difficult for her to receive the gifts of higher
levels and will limit her happiness and success as an adult.
The most extreme images of deprivation in Western media are of developing
nations suffering from famine or drought. Another example would be the AIDS epidemic
in Africa that turned many children into orphans. In situations like these, the entire
community functions at an unstable Provision level. However, even in advanced
countries, many children grow up in unstable Provision households. By some estimates,
nearly three million children in the US experience hunger every day, and a small
number of children in every advanced country experience malnutrition. This reality is
often ignored in the news media, though social workers and teachers regularly interact
with deprived children. Of course, in less developed nations, deprivation is more
common.
Some children lose one or more parents through accident or disease. In other
cases, authorities will remove children from abusive homes and place them in foster
care. This may be necessary to protect the child's life (Survival), but the loss of
connection with parents still creates instability on the Provision level, damaging a child's